96.dec The following poem appeared recently in INFOCUS magazine. The original authors were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, MI. A poll conducted among INFOCUS readers had established "waka" as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters < and >, though some readers held out resolutely for "norkies." The text of the poem follows: <>!*''# ^"`$$- !*=@$_ %*<>~#4 &[]../ ||{,,SYSTEM HALTED The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit: Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash, Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash, Bang splat equal at dollar under-score, Percent splat waka waka twiddle number four, Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash, Pipe pipe curly-bracket comma comma CRASH. [Ed's Note: the original has been changed to get rid of the errors "vertical-bar" and "tilde". Also, while some pronounce "{" as squirrley-bracket, this usage is regional.] ------ N.B. For speculation on etymology of # ("octothorpe"), see: http://wordsmith.org/words/octothorpe.html